War
by SkatingAngel
Summary: The war is drawing closer to Hotaru's and Mikan's village. The Sakura family must send someone, but with her adoptive grandfather, her younger brother and Mikan herself in it,who will go? I do not own Gakuen Alice.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1.

"Mikan-nee! They are summoning at the central park, it has to do with the coming war!" A silver haired boy yelled as he run up to the older girl and pulled at her dress.

"What, really?"

"Yes and I don't want to go to the war!"

"Don't worry Youichi, you're too young to go there, they won't call you there."

"You're sure?"

"Of course, I promise."

"Let's go see who needs to go then!"

"Yeah." She said and they started to walk down the road to the little village they lived at. They took the smaller ways as the main roads was full of people and even if that way was longer, so were they soon standing almost in the front of the crowd in the central park. Many people were summoned and everybody wanted to know if their child were going to need to go.

"Princess Luna, princess Sumire and their father Kuonji has arrived!" somebody at the other side of the park shouted and soon the three of them were standing on the little stage, placed in the middle of the park so as many people as possible could see them. Princess Sumire was carrying some paper scrolls and the guards also carried some.

"Come up here when we call your name and get your scroll!" Luna said and Kuonji handed her a another scroll. Then she began reading the names out aloud and in the alphabetic order so the girl, Mikan and Youichi should be somewhere in the end of the list. When she came to the letter i, she shouted out one of the names Mikan didn't want to hear, namely;

"Imai." Mikan's best friend's surname! Someone in their family was going to go to the war, probably Subaru, her friend's older brother. The princess continued to read the names, obviously not caring who she sent away to the war. When she came to s, Mikan and her little brother began to listen, together with many other people, hoping that the Sakura's wasn't going to need to send someone as they only had a daughter, a young son and the old man was… old.

"Sahaya…

"Saike…

Sakura…

Satios…

S…"

"You can't sent the Sakura's to the war! Thy have no one to send!"

"Well, then they can just drop dead, they aren't needed in this country if they can't work for it. Their record shows that they haven't done something for this country in age's and are therefore summoned." Kuonji answered.

"We will send both of our sons if you let the Sakura's off!" the village butcher shouted.

"So will we!" the village's seamstress screamed from the back.

"Count us in too!" other people shouted.

"Well, you can send both of your sons and we can take the Sakura's too. Now someone from the Sakura family, hurry up here and get the scroll!"

"We won't let you! They are like our own children! We will protect them!" many people surrounded Mikan and her little brother and he was crying as he thought that he would need to go to the war. But his sister opened her month and told the other people that it was alright if the needed to go as long as it wasn't Youichi that went. Many of the people understood and backed off, already grieving for the one the thought of as their own daughter leaving for the war. An old lady came and took Youichi away from there as he shouldn't know about her going to the war; he would never let her leave alone.

The girl stepped up on the stage and went to the younger princess and smiled at her as she got the summoning scroll before walking down again, smiling at the village people.

"She'll manage, right?"

"She is strong."

"if someone is going to come back, it's her."

"Good luck."

The whispers and encouragements where heard all over the place and before Mikan left the stage, she stopped and smiled as she said:

"Please take care of grandpa and Youichi while I am gone!"

Sure, were heard all over the place as she jumped down and run away from the park as a pretty loud whisper was sent through the whole park;

"That girl, she looks like Yuka, the last queen and behaves like a gentle princess, doesn't she?"

Nobody answered but everyone had one thought in their heads: "Yeah".

Mikan was already on her way home by then and soon was she met by her little brother, who was waiting for her outside their house.

"Mikan-nee! I'm going, right? No I don't wanna!"

"You're not going Youichi, they changed their mind but we'll need to work harder so we can stay here. But that's for tomorrow, right now we need to do the dinner, right? Grandpa is waiting."

And the two of them went inside and began preparing for dinner. They made a meat stew and boiled potatoes and they even had some vegetables left so they made a salad too. When the food was done and the two of them had eaten their share so took Mikan the last plate and went upstairs to a small room and left in on the small bedside table. Then she went downstairs again and told Youichi that he would need to go to the market and who to go to. He asked if she could write it down and she did while he went to bed and when the small light in his room was blown out and it became dark inside was Mikan ready to leave after packing a few more things and she went outside, closed the door and went at the direction that he training camp for these who was going to the war was… with a scroll in her hand and inside the house was a small paper lying on the floor so that the inhabitants would surely see it…

"Thought you would go." A voice said above the brown haired girl walking south. She looked up and in a tree was a black haired girl sitting, her light purple eyes following every step the brown haired took.

"Yeah, I guess everyone knew after I took the scroll from the princess and told them to take care of Youichi. You'll also help him, right? I promise that I will help your brother and…"

"Idiot, I'm going with you."

"Why?"

"You won't come back if you go alone, I need to see that you really will come back and Subaru is too old to go. His girl would be sad too."

"Let's go then, I want to be there by sunrise."

The purple eyed girl didn't answer, she merely jumped down from the tree and took out a blue box from her pocket. She pushed the darker button on the box and a small, light blue car like thing came out from the woods behind her and stopped in front of them.

"Climb in, idiot." The black haired said and soon the blue car-thing was on its way again, but this time in a direction unknown to its drivers.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2.

A small, light blue car-like-thing stopped in front of two shocked and surprised guards and two girls stepped out. Saying that the girls were ugly was an underestimate, the first one was a black-haired and it ended just above her shoulders. Her eyes were a light purple colour and her skin was pale. She had a with long armed shirt that had puffy arms. Her stomach was covered in a black corset which was tied in front and her legs with a long dark purple skirt. The guards could, only by looking at her, see that she came from a somewhat rich family.

The girl next to her also looked as she was from a somewhat healthy family with her white shirt, exactly the same as the black haired and also a similar looking corset. The only big difference was that this girl's skirt was a blood red colour and it was shorter than her friends that went all the way to her ankles. This girl's skirt ended at her knees and the guards could see her black shoes that also looked pretty expensive for a peasant like her.

But even if their clothing was similar so was the rest of their appearance very different. The second girl had brown hair and hazel eyes and was a slight tanned. The first girl had a face that said she was bored and nothing mattered, but the second had a big smile on her face that surprised the guards. Who on earth smiles when she is sent to war? Apparently this girl.

Both of them went forward to the guards that still looked slightly shocked and held out their scrolls. The two guards took them and after a short look let them in inside the walls surrounding the training camp.

"Why are we here? It's not like we need to train." The brown haired, Mikan of course, complained.

"Everybody needs to stay here for a while." The black haired, Hotaru, answered.

"Maybe everybody else but we don't."

"We're here." Hotaru said.

"Where?" Mikan asked.

As on clue, a blonde man appeared and said:

"So you're new here? Can you tell me at which level of fighting you're at?"

"We're the best from our village. I guess that means we're good."

"So you don't know?"

"Not really?"

"Okay, then we'll do it the hard way. Change into these training uniforms while I gather fighters at each level."

Mikan and Hotaru changed into the clothes and after a few modifications, as Mikan called them, they were done and waiting for the others. Apparently rumours about the fights had already been spread around because when they left the tent a big crowd of boys were outside. The blonde man was also there, together with a few other boys.

"Okay. You'll begin fighting with these two, they are at level 1, beginner level. It exist six levels but the best here is at level five. Begin."

As soon as he said that, he remembered that they hadn't gotten any weapons to use. The girls knew it too but didn't care. These guys was what you call beginners, they didn't even hold the sword right. Hotaru just pulled up her baka gun and shoot her opponent while Mikan ``borrowed´´ a sword from a guy in the audience.

It wasn't even a fight. It ended five seconds after the blonde said; begin.

"Level two. Go!"

The second fight began and once again the girls won.

"Can you please stop using that gun? Thanks. Level three. Fight!"

Once again the girls won and their opponents weren't even hurt. The girls won against the level fours too. Against the level fives they had a small trouble once but beat them too. And as there weren't any level six present they couldn't really reach that level. But Mikan asked a question that actually made it possible for them to reach level six. They were to fight all the boys looking and if they won, then they were at level six.

Mikan and Hotaru gave the swords back to their owners before going inside the tent again and when they came out, they both had a sword in their hands. At the look of the blonde Hotaru told him that they didn't want to bring their swords to the other fights. All the boys drew their swords and when the blonde said; attack, everybody attacked at the same time. Both of the girls smirked and jumped and did a somersault over the running boys, and when they had their feats on earth again they had two swords in their hands. Half of the boys dropped to their knees and held their hand against their arm or leg, bleeding.

The blonde just stood there, he couldn't believe what he saw, in just a few seconds, maybe ten or fifteen, half of the boys had been whipped out and they had been at least fifty boys here. They weren't hurt that muck either, just a small wound that wouldn't even leave a scar.

The two girls just stood there, looking at the boys wounds, smirking. The other boys; that knew that this could make them rise in rank if they managed to defeat the girls was now furious after seeing their fallen friends. At least a dozen of boys ran at each girl and soon it was only three left. Two of them was hurt but still wanted to continue and the third was the only one who didn't attack the girls the second time.

The brown haired drew a dagger from her shoe and while the black haired faked an attack, she moved so she had the three in a straight line. She took aim and many fallen boys figured out that she was trying to take the three out with one shoot.

"She's never gonna make that!"

"No way."

Whispers were heard everywhere but not high enough to alert the three boys. The dagger flew through the air and went past the three boys.

"See, she couldn't do it."

"Is she stupid or what? You can't hit three with one dagger."

"Yeah, she must be stu…"

"Look again." The blonde said and the boys looked, the first thing they noticed was that the black haired girl had the dagger in her hand and threw it to the brunette who caught in easily. The next thing they saw was the three boys, each holding their hand on their throat and when the blond ordered them to take the hand away, everybody could see the blood.

The girls, who disappeared for a few minutes, suddenly reappeared and handed everybody a red leaf. They told them to put the cream like substance in it on their wounds and they would heal faster.

Then they left with the level six emblems on their uniforms. The uniforms were a white dress that ended before the knees, with a black fabric under, a black and red coat that ended at the same length as the dress. And they also had a corset tied on the front under the coat. Both of them also had a pair of high heeled black boots. At their left side were their swords and in their boots was a few daggers tucked in. The details on Hotaru's were purple and on Mikan, blood red.

The blonde man, who finally introduced himself as Narumi, had told them that they didn't need to practise on the morning and they decided therefore to explore the camp before lunch.

They ended up not finding out so much, but now they knew where some of the main tents were placed.

_Mikan's p.o.v_

I entered the already crowded dining room with Hotaru by my side. Narumi appeared before us and took us to a table in the front before leaving, telling us to wait for him. More and more people entered through the door and the room was soon full of people, yet nobody sat at the same table as us.

Narumi came back and told us to follow him once again and we did. We went up on a big scene in the front and Narumi didn't even need to tell all of the other people in the room to quiet down because as soon as we began moving it was already quiet.

"These two joined us today and they are the first to reach level six, and more importantly, without training here at camp. I therefore decided that these two should introduce themselves to all of you. Go on now and introduce yourselves, name, alice, village and more if you want."

Hotaru started:

"Hotaru Imai, 16 years old, invention alice and from Celeste."

"My name is Mikan Sakura, I'm 16 years old and from Celeste. I have no alice and I love my little brother and grandpa of course. Oh, and Hotaru! Nice too meet you!"

Everybody else in the dining room sweat dropped, one girl that shows no emotions and one that smiles when she's about to go to a war. Yeah….

We were allowed to go back to our seats after the introduction and a maid came up to our table and asked what we wanted to eat. As always, Hotaru answered that she wanted crab brains, and I told her that I wanted to eat potatoes and meat. She went away and soon came back with our plates. We ate up and Narumi shoved us where we would sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3.

_Mikan's P.O.V._

When I woke up the nest morning, Hotaru was already up and had her clothes on.

"Hurry, you have two minutes before we need to leave. I will wait outside."

She went out from the room we shared and I jumped out from my bed. I took up the uniform we got yesterday and put it on. I brushed my hair with my fingers and looked at my reflection in the mirror to the left of the door. Deciding that I looked good enough to be seen, I left the room and met up with Hotaru.

"Took you long enough. Come on, let's go."

"Where are we going?"

"We are squad 2's captains. I'm the head and you're second in command. We're going to meet and train with them." Hotaru answered me and speed up. I ran after her and asked her after our squad's information. She gave me them and I looked them through. We were only five people in squad 2 and all of them except me had an alice.

_**Squad 2, Information:**_

_**Name: Hotaru Imai**_

_**Age:16**_

_**Alice: Invention **_

_**Rank: 6, Captain of Squad 2**_

_**Name: Mikan Sakura.**_

_**Age: 16.**_

_**Alice: - **_

_**Rank: 6, Second in command, squad 2.**_

_**Name: Misaki Harada **_

_**Age: 19**_

_**Alice: Doppelganger **_

_**Rank: 5**_

_**Name: Tsubasa Ando**_

_**Age: 19**_

_**Alice: Shadow manipulating**_

_**Rank: 4**_

_**Name: Kokoro Yome**_

_**Age: 17**_

_**Alice: Mind reading**_

_**Rank: 4**_

"So this is our squad, we're only five?"

"Yes."

"Ok, seems like we're the youngest then."

"Yes, our squad is supposedly the second best squad. Now hurry up, we're already late."

"Hotaru, you're so mean and why am I the only one without an alice?"

"Because you're the only one stupid enough not to have one." At that I actually didn't have an answer. I don't even know if she was kidding or not. That's the hard part in being Hotaru's best friend, you never know if she's kidding or dead serious. But still, she have good points too… not like I can remember any right now…but yeah, she's nice and a good friend, sometimes.

"Mikan. It's time."

"Yeah, sure." Honestly she scared me; I wasn't really thinking that we would be here so fast. We entered the tent before us to meet three thrilled faces.

"Told you they were cute!" One of them said, according to the information I read earlier the one called Tsubasa Ando.

"Yeah, you actually got something right, finally." The girl, Misaki Harada, said.

"Please leave us outside your love quarrels." Hotaru interrupted Tsubasa, who had opened his mouth to yell something back at her.

"Who are you?" The last boy asked.

"I'm Mikan Sakura, second in command and that's Hotaru Imai, captain of squad 2. Nice to meet you!" I answered him.

"Nice to meet you too." The three others responded.

"We're going to go training." Hotaru interrupted the friendly moment between us.

"Are we?" I asked.

"Yes, we need to know their worth on the battlefield, not in friendship." She answered before leaving the tent.

I followed her with my new friends by my side. On the way to the training grounds I learned new things about my new friends. Tsubasa and Misaki grew up in the same village, were engaged and came here together when Tsubasa was summoned. Kokoro preferred to be called Koko and grew up in the capital and lived his whole life in a small orphanage. He chose to go because he didn't want to live knowing that he let one of his family members be sent because he didn't have the courage.

In return for the things they told me, I explained about mine and Hotaru's families and backgrounds. I had just told them the basics when Hotaru interrupted.

"We're here." She simply said, causing all of us to look the way she pointed.

Before us was a huge field with a few tents or houses placed in each corner. In the closest one was a combat arena, completed with all kinds of weapons and fighting machines to spar with. Things for

In the second, there was a tent for the captains and second in commands to train their leading abilities.

The third was a strategy corner with all kinds of books, those with plans from previous wars and others with hints on how to make a good plan with a high possibility to work.

The fourth and last, was a large arena, ten times the one at the first corner, dived into ten different rooms and each with a special stimulator inside. You put in the basic info of the ones going inside on a screen outside and the level changed to match their fighting abilities. So to say all the three corners combined into one for the ultimate training session.

The last one was the one Hotaru led us to after gathering some things at the other stations.

She stopped us for a few minutes at the screen and then headed on, with us trailing behind. When we entered, I saw darkness, then light and darkness again before green. I looked around and saw that we were in a forest, not very different from the forest back at Celeste. Hotaru mentioned for us to come closer, so we did.

". Be careful. This is how we'll do…" She said.

"When she finished, I couldn't help the small grin from forming and when I looked around, I could see that the others also had similar grins on their faces.

Hotaru and Misaki stayed at the place we arrived at while I and the two boys went to scout the area. We found the "enemies" camp soon after we left but remained hidden for a while to see if we could figure out a good way inside.

When the boys started to lose focus we headed back to our camp that Misaki and Hotaru stayed behind to put up.

But when we came back, the boys were upset to not see any tents or any trace of Hotaru and Misaki.

"Look up in the trees." I said to them and when they looked up, they could see one of Hotaru's inventions specially made for tree sleeping. From where we stood, it looked like a platform strapped up between four trees. "Hotaru, Misaki!" I yelled and Misaki's head appeared on one side. She nodded at us before throwing down a rope ladder for us to climb up on.

When we were on the platform, the boys jaw dropped. I guess it was because of the fact that on the platform was a small building, like a small house, big enough to fit all us five.

Hotaru appeared before us with small baskets and started handing out one thing from each basket to all of us and at the same time explaining to us what they were.

"This is a communicator, you put it in your ear like this and you'll be in contact with all the others during our missions.  
Next is a tracker, this is a small device that will allow me to track you down if needed and I expect you to use them during missions at least. It would be good if you used them all times but you don't need to.  
Next is a special sword, designed to fit you and only you. As you can see, they are in forms that doesn't look like weapons right now but when you find this small button, press it and the sword will come. "

All of us were handed something that never would pass as a weapon if anybody tried to search through us. I got a ring to wear on my pinky, Tsubasa got a black earpiece, Misaki a small rust colored hair clip, Koko a silver coin and Hotaru a blue and silver colored choker.

"You'll be given mission clothes when we return and the last item for now is a package with bandages and other things you'll need for treating wounds." She handed us the last thing, showed us around in the small house, let the other's do as they wanted as long as they kept quiet and sat down with me to discuss today and tomorrow's plans.


	4. Chapter 4

Hotaru was the first one to wake up again, then Misaki and Tsubasa almost at the same time, Koko a few minutes later and I was the last one. How they loved to tease me for that.

Hotaru ordered us to put on our special mission clothes she made for us and the devises we got yesterday. Then she explained the plan and we were ready to move.

Hotaru and Misaki was the first to leave. They were going to go around the enemy camp and attack their food and water reserves to cause a commotion in that end of the camp then they were going to meet up with us again on our side of the camp. After that we were going to fight them and possibly taking out as many as possible before the other's realized that something was going on.

An hour after they left, could we hear the enemies moving away from the camp. Half an hour later, we started preparing for the attack. Like taking out or weapons and looking over our other devises. Fifteen minutes later I saw a pink hair in the bushes ten meters to my left and a pair of purple eyes in another five meters to my right. I signalized to Koko and Tsubasa with my fingers and they moved away to take their places: Koko on the other side of Hotaru and Tsubasa between me and Misaki.

"Ready?" I heard Hotaru's voice in my earring and the others agreement.

"Then let's rule!" I whispered and the others made their way into the clearing and getting rid of the enemy guards. This was also a part of our plan, I was only back up if someone should need help. The reason it wasn't Hotaru was because of the fact that she said; _**I need to test my new inventions.**_ And, well, I rather have her test it at the enemy than on me.

I climbed a tree so I would be able to see the other enemies at the other side of the camp and what I saw wasn't so good.

"I have god and bad news. The good is that you're doing well and have wiped out pretty much all of the guards, congrats. The bad news is that the rest of the enemies have surrounded you."

"WHAT?" I heard Koko, Misaki and Tsubasa shout even without the earring.

"Misaki, behind you. Tsubasa in front of you and Koko to the right." I informed them. There was no need to inform Hotaru as she already fought with them.

They fought for two more hours before I send a new message.

"If you don't finish in half an hour reinforcements will arrive."

"Mikan, you go take care of the reinforcement and we'll take care of these ones. Just make sure they won't arrive in an hour and a half." Hotaru said.

"Whoa. Hotaru, did you forget to count the reinforcement in your planning? That's a first! Well, I'm leaving then!" From my tree I could see Hotaru deal with another guy before turning and firing a Baka gun at me, causing some of the enemies to spot me. I jumped down and ran away before they could catch up to me.

Soon I could see the reinforcements in the horizon so I stopped to catch my breath and wait until they came to me instead of running all the way to them. I picked up a deck and started to play for myself.

"Hey, girl. Move it?" A voice interrupted my fifth set. I looked up to meet a man's eyes. He had blue, hard eyes and a face that showed me that he had done this many times before and I needed to once again remind myself that this was only a fictional world created to make training seem real.

"Want to play a game?" I asked him.

"No."

"Are you sure?" I asked again as some of his comrades' fell.

"No!" He said again and more fell.

"You sure, I could do this all day." I said and when he looked back and saw at least a dozen of his soldiers dead he agreed and we started to play. Every time he won, he got to hit me with his sword on either my arms or my legs, and I got to do the same.

"Mikan, what are you doing?" A voice asked and I looked up to meet Tsubasa's and Misaki's gaze. Behind them I could see Hotaru and Koko too.

"I'm playing card." I answered and looked back at my hand. "Hah, I win again."

"How can a squirt like you be so good at this? How many times have you won?"

"Five, and you?" I asked.

"Not once." He responded.

"Heh. That means I win." I said and jumped up. "What are we doing now? We're done?"

As on my signal, the world around us started to get blurry and we returned to the door we entered from yesterday.

"For today." Hotaru said and we left the room after her. "Get some rest while Mikan and I go to the Head Captains to see if something's up. Dismissed."

She walked away I had to run to catch up with her again. We arrived at the Head Captains office sooner than I'd expected and we didn't take even one wrong turn. Hotaru talked with one of the guards outside and he went inside and came back with a letter in his hand.

He gave it to Hotaru and she opened it and started reading. I admit that I was curious so I looked over her shoulder at it. The first side simply said:

**Squad 2's mission: Eliminate the enemies in Night Village.**

Hotaru turned away from me, I wasn't allowed to see the information. I waited for her to finish reading and when she did she only told me to go gather my things.

Stupid Hotaru, why didn't I get to read too?

Earclip – communicator.

No info – tracker.

6 Mikan – pinky ring sword

4 Koko – silver coin sword.

4 Tsubasa – black earring.

5 Misaki – rust hair clip.

6 Hotaru – silver choker.


	5. Chapter 5

We arrived in the small town two weeks later as it was quite a bit to travel from our training camp to Night Village. We tried to find the leader of the army stationed here and when we found him, it wasn't in a peaceful scene. Blood was everywhere and the two armies clashed and jumped at each other. He spotted us and hurried to our side. He wasn't hurt at all and I immediately knew that he did not participate in battle.

"I'm Tristan. Leader of this part of the Royal Army. You must be Squad 2."

"That's correct. Shall we help you with those ones?" Hotaru asked.

"That would be good; I can't lose more men right now." Hotaru didn't answer him; she turned to us and nodded. They headed off and I was left with Tristan. He seemed to be in his early twenties, younger than most leaders, and had pale brown hair. He turned to look at me when he noticed that I hadn't left with the others.

"Why aren't you going?"

"I'm just the backup in case something goes wrong." I answered and yawned. Looking back to my friends I noticed that all of them had gotten better since we trained that day in the training stimulator thing. Koko had learned to use his mid reading alice at the same time as he fought and Misaki only made a few copies of herself, focusing on making them faster and stronger instead. Tsubasa stopped using his alice all the time three days ago and improved his fighting instead.

Hotaru was still the same and fought with her alice but she did it in a graceful way and I could easily see why she was chosen as our leader.

"Mikan…. Help…" I heard a voice in my earpiece and quickly looked over the battle scene to find which one of them it was. Koko, I realized, he had used his alice too much and grown to use it all the time and now he was too tired to use it meaning that he couldn't fight anymore.

"Don't depend on your alice too much." I sighed back and ran over, touching my ring and blocking a blow that would have been fatal if it had hit. "Be careful." I told the others before I began to fight off the enemies with Koko by my side.

"Mikan…" I heard a voice in my earpiece. Misaki.

"Tsubasa, go and help Misaki. I'm on my way." I told him and nodded to Koko, knowing that he heard it too. I fought my way in Misaki's direction and stopped to drop of Koko with Hotaru before arriving at the same time as Tsubasa.

Turning to him I muttered. "Alice." He did as I told him causing the soldiers closest to us freeze as he stepped on their shadows. Misaki used her clones to take them out and after a few minutes I heard a new voice in my earpiece.

"Get that _leader_ to fight together with his men, we're only five." I turned and spotted Tristan and his soldiers just watching us fight.

"No, we're going to show them how thing like things should be dealt with. The guy's obviously another weakling." I answered.

"Then you'd better help."

I joined the fight again, dodging a blade here, cutting an enemy down there, dodging, jumping, hitting, dodging, hitting….

-later-

Squad 2's first clash with the enemy ended a few hours later with Squad 2 as victors. Many of the enemy soldiers had run away once they realized that they had no chance of winning against the five teenagers and only a few men clothed in the enemies uniforms were left behind, either dead, too badly injured to move or just abandoned to their fate by their fellow comrades.

"Good job." Tristan's voice suddenly said behind them. "Then we'll take these men no-"

"We'll take them back ourselves." Hotaru interrupted him and I stopped treating my wounds to look at them. "We're going back to the west anyway so it won't make that much of a difference." she explained to Tristan and I watched as his face turned red in anger.

"Fine." He finally muttered before he turned towards his men and left the area.

"What are you going to do with us?" A new voice asked behind me. I turned to see one of the Fyre army's men staring at me, the others also giving me similar faces.

"We won't do anything right now and we have no special orders saying what we should do with you but I guess we'll be taking you to the Capital where we'll hand you over to someone. " I answered.

"Please, I have a family at home." One of the men begged.

"If you answer our questions we'll have no need for prisoners." Hotaru called to me.

"You heard her." I said. "Answer our questions and we'll speak about the rest later."

"How do we know you're not lying?" One of the few women asked.

"I guess you'll have to trust us. I can tell you something you want to know."

"Then tell me, why did you join the army?" A younger man asked. I studied him before I answered.

"I live with my grandfather and my younger brother. When my family was called to participate, I choose to go. At least I had a chance to survive. Hotaru came because she was worried about me; Koko was an orphan and didn't want to send one of his 'siblings' to certain death. And the last two, Tsubasa and Misaki came together because they're engaged." I explained. All our reasons seemed too good human when you said them like this, almost like we were too good and that we had no hidden motives. Maybe we had, I concluded, maybe deep down I wanted something else than to protect my family.

"What kind of questions would you ask us and what would you do if we choose not to answer?" The woman asked.

"I guess we would ask questions about where you have squads stationed and your reasons for war, things like that. Ad if you don't answer, well then you doesn't answer, we're not like the questioners at the Capitol who tortures the prisoners."

"And when we have answered your questions, what will you do with us?"

"I guess we can let you go, or hide you somewhere until its safe for you to return home to your families. That way you won't be recruited again, but I can't make these decisions by myself. Hotaru will need to approve and at least one more from the Squad."

"…" They were quiet after that, thinking through their options carefully and we let them. It wasn't until evening arrived that Misaki came running to us when she should have been guarding Fyre's men.

"What are you doing Misaki?" Tsubasa asked as he stood up to meet her. She stopped in front of us and when she had caught her breath, she raised her gaze to me and Hotaru and said:

"They'll tell us what they know if we let them go after."


End file.
